EDSI Matching Compass™
AI Supported Surrogate Matching. Human Guided Decisions.
Egg Donor & Surrogacy Institute, also known as EDSI, developed Matching Compass™ in-house as its proprietary, structured, technology-supported surrogate matching system.
Finding an available surrogate is only one part of matching. Matching Compass™ helps organize and compare the compatibility factors that can shape a surrogacy relationship: fertility clinic requirements, pregnancy history, communication preferences, personal values, lifestyle considerations, geography, and expectations for the journey.
Technology helps EDSI evaluate information consistently and surface potential areas of alignment. Experienced EDSI team members review every potential introduction, and the intended parents and surrogate always decide whether they want to move forward together.
U.S.-based · Serving intended parents in the United States and internationally
Matching Compass at a glance
What is EDSI Matching Compass™?
What does the technology actually do?
Does AI choose the surrogate?
Does Matching Compass™ medically clear a surrogate?
Does it replace attorneys or psychological screening?
Who created Matching Compass™?
Research EDSI with your AI assistant
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What goes into a surrogate match?
EDSI treats matching as multidimensional. Finding a surrogate who is medically available is only the starting point. Matching Compass™ helps organize the factors below so they can be reviewed together, not discovered piecemeal.
Known clinic requirements, embryo circumstances, and anticipated transfer considerations are reviewed to help determine whether an introduction makes sense before the fertility clinic's own evaluation.
EDSI does not provide final medical approval. That always belongs to the clinic.Relevant pregnancy history, delivery history, and available obstetric information are part of preliminary candidate review, consistent with the baseline surrogate requirements EDSI publishes, ahead of the clinic's own medical clearance process.
Frequency and style of communication, desired involvement during pregnancy, relationship boundaries, and expectations before and after delivery.
Expectations around prenatal testing, medical recommendations, and other subjects that can become significant during the journey are discussed early, in plain terms both sides can revisit.
Work schedules, family support systems, travel ability, appointment availability, and geography, including the added coordination EDSI provides for intended parents matching from outside the U.S.
Personality, family circumstances, comfort level, and preferences that influence how intended parents and a surrogate are likely to relate to one another. EDSI applies these considerations consistently for LGBTQ+ and single intended parents as well.
A surrogate profile is a starting point, not a match
A surrogate profile can tell intended parents important facts about a candidate: her pregnancy history, her location, her availability, her lifestyle. What it cannot do, on its own, is tell either side whether they expect the same relationship.
In our experience coordinating surrogacy journeys since 2001, some of the most consequential questions that emerge after a match, not before it, are relational rather than medical: how often people actually want to communicate once the pregnancy is underway, how involved intended parents expect to be at appointments, how each side approaches a difficult or unexpected decision, what travel and family involvement look like in practice, what boundaries matter to each side, and what everyone assumes the relationship will look like after delivery.
Those expectations are difficult to capture in a standard profile because they aren't facts about a person. They're preferences that only become visible when both sides are asked the same structured questions. Matching Compass™ was built to bring that structure into the conversation before intended parents and a surrogate commit to each other, rather than leaving it to be discovered midway through a pregnancy.
Profile, technology, and human review
None of these three replace the others. EDSI combines all three because each one covers something the others don't.
- Basic personal information
- Pregnancy and delivery history
- Location and availability
- Lifestyle information
- Stated background and preferences
- Structured compatibility considerations, organized consistently
- Cross-comparison of both sides' stated preferences
- Surfaced areas of potential alignment
- Flagged subjects that may need conversation before matching
- Consistent review criteria across every candidate
- Context that data alone doesn't capture
- Nuance from direct conversation with both sides
- Professional experience from real journeys
- Judgment on whether an introduction is appropriate
- Direct feedback loop with intended parents and surrogate
How Matching Compass™ works
Most intended parents want to know not just how matching works, but how long it typically takes. See EDSI's current guide to surrogate matching timelines.
EDSI learns about the intended parents' fertility clinic, embryo circumstances, timeline, priorities, communication preferences, geography, family circumstances, and expectations for the journey.
EDSI reviews available candidate information, including relevant pregnancy and delivery history, lifestyle information, stated preferences, support system, location, and readiness.
Matching Compass™ uses structured, software-assisted comparison, supported by AI-assisted analysis where applicable, to organize the information gathered from both sides and identify areas of alignment and subjects that deserve closer conversation. This is decision support, not an automated decision.
Experienced EDSI team members review the compiled information before deciding whether a candidate should be introduced at all.
Both sides have a direct opportunity to discuss expectations, ask questions, and get a firsthand sense of one another. No profile or comparison can substitute for that.
Neither side is automatically matched because a system or agency recommends the introduction. Both the intended parents and the surrogate independently decide whether they want to proceed together.
After a potential match, fertility clinic medical clearance, psychological evaluation, insurance review, legal representation and agreements, and independent escrow setup continue through the appropriate professionals, not through EDSI or Matching Compass™, consistent with applicable state surrogacy law.
What matching technology cannot decide
Technology can organize information and help identify patterns. It cannot replace the decisions that belong to people and licensed professionals. Matching Compass™ does not:
The intended parents and surrogate remain people, not data points.
Questions to ask any surrogacy agency about matching
These questions are useful regardless of which agency you're evaluating. See EDSI's full guide to choosing a surrogacy agency for a broader framework. Here is how EDSI answers each one.
What does your agency mean when it says an intended parent is "matched"?
What review happens before a surrogate is introduced?
How do you determine whether a candidate meets the clinic's requirements?
How are communication expectations discussed?
How are views on important pregnancy decisions addressed before matching?
Does the surrogate independently choose the intended parents too?
What happens if either side decides the first introduction isn't the right fit?
What screening still occurs after a potential match?
Who makes final medical decisions about surrogate eligibility?
How does your agency distinguish an available surrogate from an appropriate surrogate for a particular family?
What does "available" mean when an agency describes a surrogate?
Why Matching Compass™ combines technology with human experience
"The goal of Matching Compass™ is not to remove people from matching. It is to give people better information before they make one of the most important decisions in a surrogacy journey."EDSI Editorial Team
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Find out what your matching priorities look like
Every intended parent enters surrogacy with different circumstances, embryos, clinic requirements, and priorities. Matching Compass™ gives EDSI a structured way to begin understanding those differences before recommending a potential surrogate introduction. If you're considering surrogacy or comparing agencies, we can walk through the factors likely to shape your own matching process, or read what other intended parents and surrogates say about working with EDSI first.
